Romania court rules to extradite man who hacked Bush's mails

BUCHAREST, Romania (AP) — A Romanian court has ruled that a taxi driver who hacked the emails of former President George W. Bush and former U.S. Secretary of State Colin Powell and can be extradited to the U.S.

The country's top court of appeal agreed Friday to a request by the U.S. to extradite Marcel Leher Lazar to the U.S., but said the period of extradition could not exceed 18 months. The ruling is final.

In 2011, the unemployed Romanian taxi driver calling himself "Guccifer" hacked the emails of Powell and Bush and other well-known figures, including the former head of the Romanian intelligence agency.

He was sentenced in 2014 to seven years in Romania for intercepting private correspondence. The U.S. charged him with online fraud and began judicial proceedings against him.